A64Pilot

If I read that SI correctly it gives directions and therefore approval to reduce the timing from 25 to 20 degrees, but does not give instructions and approval to increase timing from 20 to 25 degrees. Oh, and it also doesn’t give approval for (D) single drive mags, if again I read it correctly Although it does give an engine model with the D in it indicating the big dual mag? Either way you can decrease timing back to 20, but can’t increase from 20 to 25, not with this SI anyway.

At low RPM as in starting the Mag rotation stops around -20 BTC, it stays there and continued engine rotation winds up a pretty strong spring. At or very close to TDC the spring is released making the mag rotate at a high enough RPM so that it generates a strong spark. If you rotate the prop slowly with the plugs out for safety, the “snap” you hear is the impulse letting go quickly snapping the mag until it’s caught up with engine rotation. At a higher RPM, idle the impulse coupling is disabled and it doesn’t function so timing is returned to normal. The impulse coupling serves two functions, it reduces timing to prevent kick back of course, but it also spins the mag fast enough to produce a strong spark. The retard timing is fixed of course, so if your mag is built for a 20 degree timing, and you decide to increase timing to 25 degrees because you read on the Internet that’s better, you need to change the impulse coupling to one with 25 degrees of retard or you run a risk of kickback that can break things. Of course if your engine data plate says 20 degrees, then if you time to 25 then you’re not within the TCDS and the engine isn’t airworthy. Usually changing the data plate is a BIG deal involving the manufacturer or an STC or similar. I have not researched the work involved On dual single mag systems there usually is essentially no difference between the mag with and without the impulse coupling, a dual (combined as one case ) mag of course uses both mags for starting as the impulse drives both simultaneously. Several aircraft with dual single mags have both mags with impulse couplers, my 1946 C-85 for one, other than cost I can’t see why all mags don’t have impulse couplers myself. It definitely helps with starting. It’s easy to see, rotate the engine slowly with plugs out and you hear two snaps.

Used to be that you could get deals on Honda portable generators there better than anywhere else too, there is a Huge number of campers at SNF and only a very few have access to power.

Aviation oil is more similar to two stroke oil than Auto oil. Having said that our engines aren’t hard on oil, they run at low speeds, have truly large bottom end bearings, don’t run that hot most often, turbo’s being the exception and have very short change intervals. I’m sure much better oil could be formulated, just the money isn’t there.

Normally I’d say don’t run 100 ROP in a climb, but as your at 6,000 ft it’s probably OK.

I had no idea, what happened to no trusts? The reason of course is to jack up the short term profits, I say short term because jack them high enough and somebody does STC’s to get in on the profits. Beringers look good, But I have no idea of the cost especially as you have to buy wheels too, but I think you get sealed bearings? Which ought to last essentially forever with no maintenance.

Actually I think the new Synthetic doesn’t work well at Stupid low temps, AF didn’t put it in the B-52 back in the day because of that, but we are talking stupid low temps. Not an issue for most of us surely https://www.radcoind.com/blog-post/a-brief-history-of-u-s-military-aviation-hydraulic-fluids/ Other than that the new Syn is superior in every respect to 5606, and it’s completely miscible, no need to do a complete flush, but it’s better if you do. However if you choose to stick with 5606 if you flush the system whenever you put new pads on, you will never have a problem. If you have a bleeder ball flushing is as simple as hooking it up and let it flow until it’s flushed out enough to make you happy. Brake fires on GA airplanes are unlikely but can happen, Cirrus had issues with brake fires, remember they steer with brakes, so a long taxi with a stiff cross wind and you could get a brake fire, of course even if it didn’t catch fire the brakes get real hot, they are not serviceable, and brakes aren’t cheap. https://www.avweb.com/briefs/nprm-addresses-cirrus-brake-fires/

So what are you saying is untrue? That Silicone hoses aren’t oil resistant? If so then why do you manufacture Flurosilicone hoses?

Silicone isn’t the end of the world, it doesn’t last, a couple of car washes and it’s gone. I just think they should have told me if something other than a very fine compound was there. Silicone as far as I can tell is harmless. Issue for me was I was prepping my new to me Jeep for Rejex, which is a polymer and ideally anything that bonds to paint or even wax that’s a coating you want clean paint surface with no type of coating on it and using the Mequires it left a slick feel to the paint, so there was something, perhaps a wax, I assumed silicone because that’s what most use to get a shiny appearance, silicone is cheap and easy for them, but it doesn’t last. I stopped with the Meguires and used the 3M, it easily cleaned off whatever the coating that Mequires had left.

Your right silicone is NOT oil or fuel resistant, if you put them on your car for radiator and heater hoses don’t let oil get on them and do not use Gunk to clean your engine. However flurosilicone is very fuel resistant. However I suspect that as fast as 100 LL evaporates that cheap baking etc mats would be fine, and if they deteriorate after a couple years they are still a deal. The Gami fuel I have no idea but suspect that it would be even less tolerant to that.

Interesting thanks, it lists machine glaze as yes, but it sure felt like it has silicone.

If you do, make sure whatever you use is long enough or has a bend or something that it can’t be accidentally dropped into the reservoir. My advice is as you don’t know how old the fluid is to bleed your brakes and flush all of the old fluid out, when it gets old 5606 turns into a gel, and then you have a real problem that can be avoided. There is a better fluid that doesn’t gel but merely flushing the system every few years prevents the gelling too

Lifters and cam wear into each other if for example you move the lifters around it’s likely the wear will get excessive and you lose the cam and lifters It’s normally called cam wear eventhough it may well have been precipitated first by the lifter because coming from the automotive world on old school engines lifters are easy and cheap to replace, a cam is harder. Newer design engines usually run overhead cams and they usually have cam followers and not lifters, but there too people often refer to lifter tick, even when there are no lifters, so common usage is often incorrect For some reason you can’t run DLC on DLC, so either the cam or lifters can be coated but not both. The cam / lifter interface is by far the most heavily loaded part of an engine, nothing else even comes close to those pressures, for that reason it has to be hardened steel on hardened steel, no kind of bearing material could survive. Higher RPM, more aggressive cam profiles or bigger and heavier valves require stronger springs to prevent valve float, stronger springs increase the pressure on the cam and lifter often beyond what they can tolerate, that’s why decades ago the automotive world came out with roller lifters, a rolling surface can take more pressure. But aircraft are low RPM motors, without radical cam profiles and therefore shouldn’t be too hard on cams and lifters, yet they do wear excessively, but didn’t used to. Something changed, but I can’t figure out what. It could be fuel, 100LL is different than the old 100 but LL came out in the 70’s and the cam problem came later? Crane went under in the 2000’s but the failures started long before then? So what is it? I’m thinking maybe LL changed? I think DLC lifters are relatively recent and even just a couple of years ago were tough to get?

I don’t think corrosion is the primary driver in Lycoming cam disease. I base that on two unsubstantiated beliefs, 1. it hasn’t always been that way, by that I mean for decades cam failures were almost unheard of. But for the last twenty or so years it’s become a pretty common failure with Lycoming fielding two fixes, so it is real, it’s worse than back in the day because Lycoming fielded these fixes relatively recently, not 50 or more years ago. 2. Anyone will tell you that corrosion is a variable, some of the variables are location, Fl is much worse than Arizona, frequency of use, aircraft that fly several times a week are almost immune to internal engine corrosion. Aircraft stored in doors, especially in humidity controlled hangars are also well protected from corrosion compared to that Fl airplane tied down on the coast. But cams fail just about as frequently regardless of location or storage environment, even flight school cams fail, and those I doubt have any corrosion at all. One thing I have found out is that Lycoming used to source their cams from Crane Cam, but they went out of business about 20 years ago? I don’t know where they get them now, nor do I know when they switched Note: Crane being their Cam supplier is from memory, I don’t have a Lycoming document stating that, so that’s not substantiated either. I’m not saying that corrosion won’t make a cam fail, if it’s bad enough and on the higher loaded lobe then it certainly can, just that I don’t think corrosion is the primary driver is all.

There are always show discounts at the shows, are they worth the trip from Brazil? I don’t know that’s for you to decide I don’t think you will find any Mooney specific parts though and you may go home with things you didn’t even know you needed until you saw them

Personally I’m a skeptic of how long do ceramic coatings last, I don’t believe they will last 3 to 5 years, but I guess that depends on the definition of last. “Ceramic” coating is apparently a polymer. https://cardetailingplanet.com/is-a-ceramic-coating-worth-your-money-should-you-get-it/ This is ceramic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic I don’t know how the paint coating is a ceramic, perhaps a marketing thing maybe or ?

I’m sure that would render the case unairworthy, but I know you were kidding. If you we’re really serious an STC would be how it’s done, involving at least a powerplant DER

I believe ONLY the FAA can ground an aircraft. Whatever grounding means, not to be cute but what does it mean, exactly? As an IA I know I cannot, What I am supposed to do say if I perform an Annual and discover a Very unsafe condition is sign off the Annual and state I gave the owner a list of discrepancies. I’ve never had to do that. If I ever do I think I’ll try to get the owner to sign for the list to cover myself. Basically I think I’d sign it off by saying an Annual insp has been completed and the aircraft found to be unairworthy, a list of discrepancies was provided to the owner. Now I said it was found to be in an unairworthy condition, because it is, is that grounding it?

I’ve always given cylinders to a shop that specializes in that, but I don’t think we shim aircraft springs like we do cars, if not I don’t even know why not, basing this only on I have never noticed a shim under a spring in an aircraft like I did cars back when I was building car engines. Aircraft engines normally just can’t rev past TO RPM because of the prop governor and even if it fails one can’t rev real high unless it’s in flight at high speed, then maybe. Anyway 2700 is valve float wise pretty much Diesel engine type of RPM, I mean really slow which while I assume we have big heavy valves that contributes to float unless our valve springs are stupid weak I just don’t see valve float happening? Its largely why Lycoming cam disease confuses me, I’d expect it on highly loaded valve trains like hot cams on older generation cars turning over 6,000 RPM, but a 2700 RPM airplane engine ought to be very easy on the valve train.

The mini also doesn’t do as well on 12V, it’s allowed something like 12 to 40 or similar, anyway it does better on 24 than it does 12. Many people are running them off of Milwaukee drill batteries etc. The hikers etc that can’t be without internet? I bought mine for the Motorhome, it was a struggle deciding on the mini and the Gen3 for me. The Gen3 is faster and as the Router is inside it’s a stronger , faster signal, but then of course you have the router to deal,with and have to run a cable into the Motorhome.

It got a good friend ferrying an S2R-T660 over the Amazon in Brazil, I don’t know what he was doing out there at night but there are of course no lights in the Amazon. He didn’t crash but did have to fight disorientation. I hate that, I got the leans so bad doing instrument training in a UH-1 that I made my shoulder sore I was pushing against the door so hard. That was flicker vertigo, sunlight coming in through the green houses but the blades strobing the sunlight, a piece of white poster board was over the windshield and it was flashing on it. 2 to 20 cycles per sec

People that aren’t instrument rated that fly at night will end up IMC, it’s a matter of time. The reason is of course you often can’t see the weather coming My first clue was the green position light had a halo around them. Do NOT turn on the landing light, doing so will really mess you up it’s like flying inside of a ping pong ball.

What is his hourly rate? Auto dealers around here get approaching $200 an hour I’m told, but it’s Florida and that means up North prices. ‘Having said that I had my John Deere lawnmower worked on in Georgia, their hourly rate for a Lawnmower was higher than an IA got.

I think it goes way back as in decades ago and was primarily the new pilot and or owner just going flying and it was an excuse to fly, it was something to do, on weekends you would have several in the pattern doing T&G’s. I personally other than back in training have ever done them, and don’t on a complex aircraft, but not because I’m afraid of a gear up, but because just adding gear cycles for seemingly no real gain is counterproductive as in it has to be accumulating wear for no gain.

You Can NDI springs, but it’s not worth it, Crack growth in high strength steels which springs are is very rapid, so you could eddy current or mag particle springs, they pass and break soon after. Valve springs rarely break in aircraft, in truth I can only come up with either a bad batch which is unlikely or excessive hours, also unlikely but possible I guess because maybe they have been put into more than one cylinder over the years? I think I’d get another mechanic to collapse the lifter and check for proper pushrod length, too long shouldn’t break springs but would I believe cause burnt valves. Sometimes rarely unusual events happen, like two bad springs in one aircraft that fail at about the same time. I don’t normally believe in coincidences, but maybe? Over revving as in floating the valves can fatigue springs, but that shouldn’t even be possible in an airplane, and while revving it up when cold is bad as in usually causes cylinder and other things I can’t see how it hurts valve springs. Oil looks excessive to me, and could well be coming from a valve guide, but oil unless consumption is stupid excessive or visable smoking isn’t really usually an airworthiness driver